separate tornado warnings for separate storms producing tornadoes on the ground. finally calming down because the heat of the day is gone. there's henriville, farther to the east, same tornado, but almost wiped out a town to the east. we also have incredible new video out of a tornado on the eastern section here of kentucky. kind of the coal fields of kentucky. west liberty, kentucky. this was by far in my opinion, watching the doppler radar, the strongest tornado on radar. doesn't mean it was the strongest one on the ground, but the rotation was the strongest and tightest, speeds going one way to another way were at least 100 miles per hour. this on radar looks like an ef-3 or ef-4 tornado. now with the first video out, driving into west liberty, you can see the damage. yes, it's dark, but you can get a feel for the buildings knocked down. really, a police car that was damaged completely. and more tornado damage from cars being just -- things tossed onto them. people are out there, search and rescue. the national guard has been called out. 50 members going out to help in the clean up and rescue tonight. it's been a deadly day across the country today. we don't know the number of casualties, but we know more than a dozen so far confirmed by cnn, and now that it's dark, people still missing, these numbers will go up by morning, and we'll have those for you as the night falls and as the day comes up tomorrow. anderson? >> chad myers, appreciate it. we'll continue to check in with you. on the phone is a storm chaser who road out de of the werst of the weather in henriville. what was it like? >> shortly after 3:00, we went in to see in the search and rescue mode. we came up on an elementary/junior high school. there were about 71 children still at the school at 2:30 timeframe. when that happened, they were trapped in part of the building. it took multiple medical people to help get the kids out of the school. while we were trotting the kids out of the school, tornado two hit us again about 15 minutes after the first tornado. that produces baseball to softball sized hail, 80-mile-per-hour winds and massive damage. people hit with hail and injured while they were trying to pull people from the rubble from the first tornado. that was in henriville, and it went up to marysville, taking in massive heavy hits. the town by some accounts, the town is gone. i have not been up there, can't get up there, but there was massive damage in marysville. there was massive aide this afternoon after 3:00 at the school and around the city, and we're saying the sheriff was missing, they found him, and digging around the rubble was pretty bad. >> these types of storms at this level, it seems early for early march, isn't it? >> it is, anderson. here is a warning. here is a warning to america and all of the u.s. mother nature is telling you right now, you have outbreaks in several areas, last week and the week before, the first week in march, another super outbreak on the way tonight and this afternoon, this is a warning sign. it's telling you that the gulf of mexico is warmer than normal. we're going to have a lot more active, falling outbreaks. we're not even in peak season until may. this is a precursor of what is coming. people need to be prepared, have a plan. whether you're at school, your home, your office, you need to have a plan. this is just the beginning of what is coming to the next 90 to 120 days in the southern united states and that's going to be a tough year. >> you talked about the kids in the school. they're okay, yeah? >> yes, the kids, there was no kid injured or parent or teachers at the school that were injured. a lot of people fighting, a lot of kids had water on them. the roof had collapsed, walls had collapsed, we had to step over rubble. different walls and sections and break doors down. as you get people through the doors, some people had mud and water on them, and scared and the fire alarms were going off. inside the school was a bad situation. it picked up cars and buses and threw them into the school. it's a very bad scene there. >> we're seeing the pictures of the school buses tossed around like they were toys. jeff, appreciate you talking to us about what you saw today. the damaging storm system, as we said, and as chad reported, covered a major portion of the middle of the country. the storm now extending as far as the atlanta area. let's go to rob marciano just outside of chattanooga, tennessee. what's it like there today? >> i tell you what, it's been a rough eight hours here in eastern tennessee. it all started with a tornadic thunderstorm that rolled through northern alabama around lunch time, made its way through the border and right across chattanooga. by 1:00, it touched down east of where we are here in tennessee. some of the pictures coming out of there, multiple homes damaged if not destroyed. 40 to 50 of them. we had nine or ten injuries of people at area hospitals, and 15 or so people that were treated and released on the scene. so far, the good news is even with all of the damage, there have been zero fatalities. search and rescue ku cue crews continue, but we had two other storms that have come through just in the last hour and a half. those operations have been suspended. one of those storms dropped a tremendous amount of hail on us right here, up to an inch or so in diameter hail. the hail core blocked our vision of what was a tornado that was reported just to our south by a couple miles. and now just about 15 minutes ago, yet another cell went through, that one tornadic, to the north and east. that main line has still yet to come through. a frustrating, devastating day here for the folks who live just north and east of chattanooga, tennessee, where the damage has already been done and now ongoing storms they have had to deal with, one after another, and another batch of them coming in about two hours from now. >> have there been deaths or injuries reported in tennessee? >> not in this section. i can't speak for the rest of tennessee. just to the east of here in cleveland, on the other side of the highway, homes destroyed and injuries over there as well. you know, between what happened today and the storms that rescuers have had to deal with, not everyone is accounted for. that operation is ongoing. we're hoping that number stays in the zero mark, but there's a lot of damage out there. potent storms that have come through. >> and you agree that for this time of the year, this is very early for these kind of intense storms? >> absolutely. and really, the time of the year and where these storms happened is where you have to look for the red flag. we had a tornado reported in nebraska two days ago. that's never happened in the month of february. there's a red flag there. as jeff pointed out, this outbreak, which is very much a mid-to late april scenario is alarming. we have moved out of the area that has been devastated. we were evacuated because of the oncoming storms. that's why all you see behind me is rescue vehicles. we're at the command post that is also acting as a shelter. some churches that tried to open up to be shelters, they didn't have power as well. it's frustrating for residents, victims, and rescuers alike. >> i want to go to lauren smith. he's in louisville, kentucky. what did you see today? i understand you came very close. >> i was in indiana. we were covered, the tornado, we pulled off at the henryville exit, and moment after we arrived, we saw the twister coming across the highway right at us. the video was incredible. but it came across, we ran inside a nearby convenience store with about half a dozen other people. >> we're showing the video now. >> it went by, and waited for it. the building shook. the lights went off. the noise was incredible. and it passed right in front of us. fortunately, where we were, we were not injured, but across the street from us, a few hundred yards away, total devastation. a gas station across the street, 200 yards from us, leveled. a complex beyond the gas station leveled. trees torn down. an amazing sight to see, but there were heroic people there who immediately began to go in and pull people out. i don't think there were any injuries -- there were injuries, no deaths in this area. an amazing sight in the middle of a twister as it bears down on you. >> lawrence, we're looking at the images of you and your crew took as you were trying to seek safety from this. what does it feel like to be so close? what -- does the temperature change? what is the experience like? >> there was no temperature change. it was very quiet, first of all. until it got close to you. then came this terrific roar, and then you could see the debris begin to swirl. we thought we better get inside of a building and get away from this as fast as we can. we went inside, continued to shoot from inside the building through the window. you can see the debris flying everywhere. the noise was deafening. people were screaming inside the building. it passed by us within a few hundred feet, and hit the town of henryville to horrific effect. it was amazing to see the kind of damage that storm could cause. >> it's extraordinary to see the images. how fast did it go -- did it go by you? did it move past you? >> tell you the truth, it seemed like forever, but it was probably only a minute or so before it passed by us. as we looked to our east, as it passed by us, we could see the homes being ripped apart. >> lawrence, i'm glad you and your crew are safe, and able to get the images for us. i appreciate it, lawrence smith, remarkable day today. our breaking news coverage is going to continue throughout this hour with late update on the powerful and deadly storm system. let us know what you think on facebook and google plus. up next, a powerful firsthand account of the assad regime in syria. ability the bombardment of their people. lies, more lies today, and somebody who can directly contradict the lies we're hearing from the syrian regime because they're telling lies about him, and he's alive to tell us the truth. photographer paul conroy just got out of syria, homs, a lot of people died trying to get him out. he calls it a medieval slaughter that has happened and a medieval slaughter that's about to continue. the only difference now is there's no one left in homs who can videotape it and document it and tell the world about it. tonight, he will. keeping them honest tonight begins with a terrible, terrible truth and the grotesque lies being told about it over and over again. the truth tonight is stark and simple. the people in baba amr, the neighborhood in the syrian city of homs has been under attack for weeks. those people now entirely at the mercy of the regime that has been trying day after day and week after week to murdered them, to kill them. they have been targeted by the heaviest weapons of war, even though there's no war, only killing. in the words of a man who just escaped from the city who just saw all of it happening, what's going on in baba amr is, quote, the mideven siege and slaughter of civilians, the medieval siege and slaughter. the lies meantime from the assad regime do not stop. the syrian foreign ministry issued a statement that pretty much left us speechless. it was about the rocket attack that killed marie colvin and a photographer remi ochlik and injured paul conroy, who you're going to hear from in a moment. the syrian government after hearing the sad news that miss colvin had been killed exerted immense efforts to find out the circumstances under which miss colvin was killed. it's hard to say anything about that but paul conroy can say plenty about it. as we said, he was on the receiving end of that same attack that killed his colleague. we spoke to him just a short time ago. paul, you were injured in the shelling that killed your friends and colleagues. marie colvin and remi ochlik. how are you doing, first of all? >> i am okay. i'm in london now. i've seen a lot of specialists. they have got the wounds under control in my left leg and removed some metal from my abdomen, so i'm stabilized now. >> you've covered wars all over the world for a long time. in terms of what you saw happening in baba amr, in homs, in syria, how does it compare? >> i would say quite categorically, that's the most ferocious, vicious and unnecessary that i've seen. there are actually no military targets within baba amr. all of the intense shelling is directed at the civilian population. so it's quite a unique situation in baba amr. >> is it even a war? is it accurate to call it that? >> no, i think it would be wrong to call it a war. this is, i think, a medieval siege and slaughter. i would hesitate to use the word "war." >> slaughter. >> in baba amr. >> you say it's a slaughter? >> it's a slaughterhouse in there. the city of and people -- it's a very small neighborhood. i was in misrata for the peak of the shelling there. at least people had space to disappear and run and change neighborhoods. in baba amr there is nowhere to go. the area is ringed by snipers, so any attempt at leaving the neighborhood is met by sniper fire. the buildings are low, single story buildings generally. they can't withstand the heavy artillery that's being fired into them. so it's a slaughterhouse. >> in terms of what's going to happen now, if free syrian army forces have left as they say they have, and the military, the syrian regime is able to just move in and take control of the area, and it seems they have, what do you think is going to happen? >> i mean this was everybody's, you know, biggest fear. i think most people in baba amr had unfortunately had to accept their fate and the world has once again stood by and watched as this assault continued. i think now people have accepted the fact that they will probably end up dead. that's the general feeling of the place, they were prepared dash preparing to die. when i was rushed out of the place, i think most people accepted that the west -- nobody was coming to their help and they were prepared to go to their death. it's unfortunate. >> and now syrian forces are free to go house to house, apartment to apartment and seek whatever revenge they want. and there's really no one there anymore to document it. no international correspondents and even locals with access to youtube cameras and uploading things on youtube? >> absolutely, anderson. unfortunately now -- that was a line of defense to a point, the fact that this could be documented and maybe hopefully the presence of photographers and journalists, both western and syrian, held a modicum of security. but now that's gone. this will continue in the dark undocumented. and i fear that the opportunity will be taken to exact revenge on these people. now the cameras are gone and we can only imagine the horrors that will unfold. i fear to think of what's going to happen to the people now. >> in the last interview i did with marie colvin before she was killed she used the word lies, about the lies the syrian regime has told. it's a word we use on this program a lot to describe the inaccurate statements they have made over the last 12 months. syrian state television now says that calm has been restored in baba amr and they have aired interviews of people who say armed terrorists were responsible for shooting and chaos. that's the line the regime has been pushing since the beginning of the conflict. when you hear what they have to say, what do you think, based on what you saw? >> i feel sick, anderson. this regime one day hopefully will answer at the hague. but the level of lies and deception are beyond -- i hate to use the world human. i hope the outside world doesn't believe any of this nonsense. they've executed, slaughtered, butchered, women, children, men for the last ten months. and the last two weeks that this regime has committed crimes, they're not war crimes, they're just crimes. this is just outright murder. there's no war involved. i think they're hiding behind the lies. anderson, this is pure outright murder of civilians in their homes by a heavily armed force with impunity have shelled and destroyed these people. we saw that. marie colvin died witnessing this. and she saw that, i saw that, we've seen it. this is absolute nonsense. the regime -- these are educated people. these are not people in the hills of afghanistan. these people were educated at universities. there's a whole system in place, and for 40 years the syrian people have lived under this system, themselves expert in the lies, deception and murder. we once again sat by and watched a whole regime commit murder. not war crimes, there's no war. the war is a fallacy. this is murder of civilians. it is from a regime that is expert in lying and death. they hopefully -- let's hopefully get these people on trial at the hague, the crimes against humanity. >> the other statement the syrian government made today was that they said that they were on the verge of approving a visa for marie colvin so that she could travel to the country legitimately. they have said that oftentimes, they promise visas to people and never delivered on that. they also claim they're going to launch an investigation to find out how marie was killed. do you have any doubt in your mind how marie was killed and who killed her? >> i was with marie when she was killed and i know who killed her. there's no need for an investigation. they were professional artillery men, targeted, bracketed and murdered marie colvin. they murdered remi. this was murder, there's no need for investigation. the syrian regime -- i mean i -- you know, i'm sitting there mourning the loss of a friend and a colleague and i have to listen to this nonsense from the murderers themselves. it's like the murderers are investigating the murderers. it's laughable. >> and the final thing, i believe it's important to confront their lies constantly because otherwise they go unanswered. the syrian government is also now saying that they were actually trying to help you and other wounded journalists leave baba amr but it was the insurgents who refused to let you leave. >> once again, anderson, we're looking at -- it's a pathetic attempt at lying. if that's the best -- i would go face to face on television with any of that syrian regime and challenge their lies. that's an open offer to the assad regime. if they want to face me on a one-to-one interview, i will refute their lies face-to-face. if they give me a visa, i will come to damascus and refute their lies. that's an open challenge for the assad regime. i have that confidence. i will travel back to syria and we can have it out face to face. >> we would like to get a visa too and travel back with you. paul conroy -- >> if you can arrange that, then i'll go with you and we'll confront this regime on their lies. >> they no longer come on my program. we've called them on their lies a few too many times but we keep asking. so listen, paul, i've never met you but i have such respect for what you've done and i'm so sorry for the loss of marie and your friends and your colleagues. i'm glad you're back and alive and speaking out, because you're one of the few people who has witnessed the murders and the slaughter. so thank you. >> thank you, anderson. >> paul conroy. just ahead tonight, much more on the powerful storms that pummeled a wide stretch of the u.s. tornados left miles of damage in their wake. it's a day of sheer terror in a lot of small towns today. also ahead, rush limbaugh's comments about a female law student put him in the cross-hairs of being slammed by all sides. mitt romney finally made a comment about it after dodging some questions about it. we'll show you what he said and what some of the other gop candidates have said as well. welcome back. you're looking at a school bus embedded in a house in henryville, indiana, about 20 miles